Deal to save Ford jobs ratified by 83%

Windsor, Ont. -- Ford autoworkers voted in favour of a new collective agreement this weekend, supporting a deal that will preserve jobs and protect wages, pensions and benefits for thousands at Ford plants in Windsor and Oakville.

CAW members in Windsor, Oakville, St. Thomas and Bramalea ratified the agreement by 83 per cent.

But the deal will also see the closure of the St. Thomas plant in September 2011, throwing about 1,400 people out of work.

CAW national president Ken Lewenza said the agreement is “not a utopia,” but is the best the bargaining team could negotiate under Ford’s threat to pull out of Canada if a deal wasn’t reached.

Lewenza said workers’ approval of the deal does not mean they are satisfied with it.

“These companies aren’t threatening today. I mean, they’re acting,” he said. “There’s been lots of plant closures and we’ve done everything in our power to save as much as we possibly can through bargaining.”

Under the agreement, which expires Sept. 17, 2012, Ford will continue to produce 10 per cent of its North American output in Canada — down from the company's current manufacturing footprint of 13 per cent.

CAW economist Jim Stanford said the commitment doesn’t fully offset the production losses of the St. Thomas closure, but it does include production commitments at its Windsor and Oakville plants.

The Essex Engine plant will be the sole supplier of a new, fuel-efficient engine called Premium Coyote as well as any derivatives of that product. The Windsor Engine plant will continue to be the sole source for the 5.4-litre engine for the life of the product as well as the 6.8-litre engine. The plant will also have the opportunity to produce any components associated with an increased demand for the Coyote engine.

In Oakville, Ford agreed to allocate two new-generation products based on a new global platform. The Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX, currently produced at the Oakville plant, will also undergo a major redesign.

The new products represent a US$2-billion investment in Windsor and Oakville by the Ford Motor Co.

The agreement preserves base wage rates and pensions for current employees, but it will see the starting wage for new hires reduced to 70 per cent of the established rate. The annual $1,700 “special payment” for employees will be eliminated under the new contract, as will the $2,600 employee vehicle purchase discount and the tuition refund program.

Bryan Deane, who has worked for Ford for 26 years, said he was surprised by the deal.

“I thought we were just coming to this agreement like lambs to the slaughter,” he said. “It’s better than what I thought it was going to be. They seem to have accomplished some security that I didn’t think they could get in this environment, in this economic day right now.”

Gary Boissonneault, a 33-year veteran of the auto industry, also voted in favour of the deal.

“Given the environment, I don’t like the situation, but I certainly support the agreement,” he said. “We’ve got to live to fight another day.”

Mike Vince, CAW Local 200 president and chairman of the master bargaining committee, said Ford was aggressive during talks, threatening to pull out of Windsor and withhold the global platform from Oakville.

“This was an extremely difficult week,” Vince told voters Saturday. “In the bargaining committee’s opinion and mine, from doing this for quite some time, they were dead serious. I truly believe … that they wanted us to fail so they had an excuse to leave. We weren’t about to give them that excuse.

“To do nothing would have been irresponsible. (We were not) going to roll the dice with your livelihood and your family. We weren’t about to do that.”

The closure of the St. Thomas plant will cost Ford about $400 million.

Employees who are eligible for retirement will receive incentives of $75,000 to $90,000 as well as a $35,000-vehicle voucher or a $25,000 payment in lieu of a voucher. Other employees with more than five years of seniority will receive a lump-sum payment of $75,000 to $100,000 as well as a $30,000 vehicle voucher or lump-sum payment of $25,000.

“The closure of St. Thomas is a bitter, bitter pill for our members and for the entire community,” reads a bargaining committee report distributed to CAW members at the vote on the weekend. “Nothing can compensate our St. Thomas members for the heartache and frustration they are feeling today.”

But Stanford told voters in a packed Caboto Club in Windsor Saturday, “even though these are incredibly, incredibly tough times — very painful, including in St. Thomas today — I believe that … all of you and your elected leaders have made the absolute best of a very, very bad situation.”

Lewenza assured CAW members Saturday that the union’s leaders won’t be resting easy now that the deal has been reached.

“We can get the legal collective agreement behind us, but the continual fight to preserve jobs and to preserve investment in Canada is every single day. Once we get this ratified, believe me — we’re going to be going to Dearborn (Michigan) fighting for more work.”

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